Does teaching your dog to shake a paw qualify as training?It does if it’s also teaching your dog to earn something it values.Tricks and games are actually great training tools because they exercise and mentally stimulate your dog, improve cognitive processes, teach a reliable response to cues and strengthen the human/canine bond.Plus they add an element of fun to the training process.

Tricks can be functional or purely entertaining, and both are useful in training because they teach your dog to do a variety of different things on cue.Functional tricks include identifying and retrieving objects, opening and closing doors, and turning lights on and off.Examples of entertaining tricks include “stick em up” or “pull my finger” (more on these later).

START WITH A POSITIVE APPROACH

In order to achieve your dog’s maximum potential, all training should be positive and motivational, never intimidating.It’s been scientifically proven that fear, stress and anxiety inhibit a dog’s ability to think, learn, remember, problem-solve and make choices, so punishment and reprimands are clearly counter-productive to the training process.By using a positive approach you have a dog that’s eager to make the correct choice, instead of one that’s afraid to make the wrong choice.

FUN AND GAMESPhysicalThese improve your dog’s coordination and increase strength.You can start simple with doggy push-ups that involve alternating between the sit and down positions or else teach your dog to catch balls or other objects.Tug is another great physical game but it’s important that you be the one who always starts and ends each game.Games involving balls, tug toys, etc., can help you develop reliable “leave it”, “drop it” and “take it” cues, which are especially essential for dogs that pick up inappropriate items.It can also be handy to teach a dog that loves fetch to put objects “in my hand”.For example, we taught Kimo to fetch a beer.MentalGames can also serve as great mental workouts. The more you cognitively challenge your dog, the sharper it will become.Games not only improve memory, but also create a thinking dog that is flexible and resilient.The cup game is a fun and simple one to try.You’ll need a friend or family member to assist you.First, place four cups (opaque plastic is a good choice) upside down in a row approximately four feet apart.Stand at the far end of the room with your dog on a leash and have your helper approach him and allow him to sniff a treat or small toy.You assistant then places the treat or toy under one of the cups at the opposite end of the room.Take your dog out of the room, count to ten, then return and release him to find the treat or toy under the cup.TEACHING THROUGH TRICKSThere are numerous positive methods for creating new behaviours and tricks to put on cue.For the dog, it’s about learning new behaviours to earn valued resources; for the intended audience, it can be quite entertaining.Lure-reward training: This involves using something the dog values, such as food or other resources, to motivate and move the dog.When the dog follows the lure (it could be a treat, toy, etc.), you can ask it to move its body into various positions such as sit, down and spin.Capturing: This technique is used to put natural behaviours offered by a dog on cue.For example, when Wile E. Coyote was rescued she was starving and therefore highly food-motivated.When she saw food she’d spin in circles, wave her paws in the air and then because she was weak at the time, lie down to rest.We started rewarding the spins and put them on cue; turned her paw movements into “wave” and “stick em’ up”; and turned her offered down position into “bang”.

Shaping: A required behaviour is achieved by rewarding a succession of small steps until you reach a polished end result.

This mentally stimulates the dog by tapping into its “cause and effect” mind.We used shaping to teach Skye to perform in the musical Annie.As part of her role, she had to slowly enter stage left with her head hanging (she was sad), stop center stage and look left then right (she was alone), hang her head again, then slowly exit stage right. At the end of the show, she descended a staircase to center stage with the rest of the cast to give her bow and exit.Guess who got the biggest applause?

Targeting: In this technique, the dog is taught to touch a part of its body to a target of choice.Targeting can be used to teach the dog to heel, move away from you, go to a specific mark, retrieve, flip light switches, open and close doors and more.You can create cute tricks such as the one in which Sahara touches her nose to ours in an “Eskimo kiss”.Others can be funny like “pull my finger”, when Leia puts her mouth on a treat-scented finger. We now use this as a check in cue while the dog is off-leash.

Spending time with your dog should be fun and using games and tricks as part of your daily routine is a great way to train. Building a bond and teaching self-control doesn’t have to seem like work and it certainly shouldn’t be intimidating or stressful for the dog.Training should be enjoyable for both or you, while teaching your dog to think for itself, exhibit self-control and make correct choices.We want companions not slaves.